Where there were buds yesterday, there are flowers today: suddenly the lilies are opened all over town. To my surprise, I find that a flower I didn't much like when I moved here is now a flower to which I look forward, at least a little. And then I realize that "when I moved here" is now a half-decade ago, and that a lot can happen (and not-happen) in that long a stretch of time, which has passed almost embarrassingly swiftly.

We take a deep breath and push on one more time, and then we have completed our first fifteen course hours. And when I sit on the couch to watch another movie (so wonderfully strange!) with my excellent friends, I am wide awake, except for the few minutes midway through when I am not, at all.